SAN JOSE — Three years ago, Madison Nguyen became the fresh new face of Vietnamese American politics, an upward-bound city politician in San Jose. She was splashed on magazine covers; the chosen one who seemingly held the hopes of the city's emerging Vietnamese community.
Now she is in a fight for her political career, targeted by Vietnamese Americans who believe she has betrayed them.
Voters will decide on Tuesday whether to unseat the 34-year-old councilwoman. It would be the first time a Vietnamese American is recalled from public office. Some believe it may be a bigger test: whether Vietnamese politics in America can move beyond an agenda defined by the expectation that those the community elects will do as they're told.
For more than a year, Nguyen has been under fire for refusing to name the city's first Vietnamese shopping district Little Saigon, the name of the bustling ethnic enclave in Orange County and one adopted by Vietnamese communities throughout the country. To some, the name represents a united front against the communist regime that many immigrants fled.
Nguyen's proposal, Saigon Business District, was viewed as an insult by some Vietnamese Americans, even though Nguyen said it was a political compromise hammered out after considering more than half a dozen names. She said she was trying to balance competing interests from constituents inside and outside the Vietnamese community.
But Nguyen's attempt at political independence and compromise backfired. Thousands protested outside City Hall. An activist staged a 29-day hunger strike. Hundreds chastised her at a City Council meeting, invoking their struggles escaping the communist government after the Vietnam War.
"She has completely lost the trust of the people," said Paul Loc Le, a local accountant and onetime Nguyen supporter who is now treasurer for the recall campaign.
Nguyen said she is suffering the pitfalls that come when an ethnic politician tries to exert political independence that can clash with cultural expectations.
"The Vietnamese community is one of the most complex communities I have dealt with," Nguyen said. "It's ironic that it is my own community."
While Nguyen has remained stoic in the face of the storm, her foes have been quick to jump on perceived missteps. When she told a crowd of college students that the recall effort had become a "circus," the interpretation by some Vietnamese Americans was that she had called her constituents animals.
